1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures discussed herein relate to an information processing apparatus, a communications method, and a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
TV conference systems have been widely used for holding a TV conference between multiple terminal apparatuses via a communications network such as the Internet. In such a TV conference system, one of transmission terminals transmits image data and sound data. The other one of the transmission terminals subsequently receives the transmitted image data and sound data, may display images on a display, or output sound from a speaker to implement a TV conference between the transmission terminals.
In addition, text chat systems have also been widely used for performing a text chat by transmitting and receiving text data between multiple terminal apparatuses via a communications network such as the Internet.
In general, the TV conference system and chat system are mutually independent from each other, and hence users are provided with different IDs and passwords for use in different systems. Accordingly, the users generally manage their IDs and passwords for each of the systems.
In order to improve linking such independent systems, there is proposed a technology to associate phone numbers with respective electronic mail addresses in the two independent systems of electronic mail system and telephone system (e.g., Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-330234, hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”). For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a linking system for associating phone numbers with respective electronic mail addresses in the separate independent electronic mail system and telephone system. In the linking system, a phone number of a communication partner is reported to an electronic mail system after calling or receiving a phone call, and the electronic mail system saves the transmitted or received electronic mails. Subsequently, the electronic mail containing a string corresponding to the phone number of the communication partner in the body of the electronic mail is extracted by searching for the electronic mails saved at the time of calling or receiving the phone call, and the extracted electronic mail is displayed. This linking system registers associated information between the phone number of the communication partner and the address of the extracted electronic mail.
In this linking system, users need to be authenticated with different IDs and passwords for using the independent systems; that is, a first set of an ID and a password is only effective in a first system, and a second set of an ID and a password is only effective in a second system.
For example, the text chat system authenticates a user by using mail address capable of uniquely specifying the user as an ID whereas the TV conference system authenticates the user with an ID uniquely allocated to the user. Hence, when one of the users desires to hold a TV conference with the other user while performing the text chat with the other user, the former user needs to be authenticated by the TV conference system to log in the TV conference system in order to start the TV conference with the latter user.